Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Since 2009, when Deputy Willie O'Dea was a member of the Government, the number of claims has increased enormously under all headings, while numerous civil servants have taken early retirement, including very experienced staff. In that context, I undertook a complete overhaul of the system and implemented IT improvements and I am happy to say that by the end of the year the backlog of domiciliary care allowance and invalidity pension applications had been significantly dealt with. There is now no backlog of applications for domiciliary care allowance. Expenditure under the headings under discussion has gone up since last year.

There can be a problem where a person does not provide all of the data and details necessary to support an application. It can mean having to revert to seeking additional information. There are certain areas in which deciding on claims may be more difficult. It must be remembered that a claim is made by an individual, but it is the medical adviser who supplies the actual data to support it.

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